Using Facts

THE GENTLEMAN, in response to my comment that the president is a criminal if only because the president himself says he is (what's wrong with asking Ukraine to investigate Biden? I can put my hands anywhere on a women's body I want, and so forth), allowed as that he is indeed disappointed with the Republicans and the president, but that he had no choice but to vote for Trump, owing to the fact that Hillary Clinton is an out and out criminal herself, a shady character with a long history of shady doing, and such. I gave my standard fact based response: in this country, you become a criminal the very moment you are convicted of a crime in a court of law, and not one moment before. Unless, of course, you brazenly go about bragging about your crimes, after the fashion of Trump. For Hillary, there is nary a parking ticket nor overdue book library fine, nothing. Dude said: she's done the crime, but she's just aint been caught yet, mainly because her husband covered for her, and her wealthy powerful father bought her way out of it. Well, the gentlemen never attended law school, and doesn't seem to know much about the late Hugh Rodham's actual financial circumstances. None of that matters, of course. It never does. Hating Hillary Clinton is sufficient, among the MAGATS, to convict her, of...whatever. Then too, Trumpers will be Trumpers. The gentleman walked away, as they all inevitably do, shaking his befuddled head. I have a friend, better described as a former friend, who insists that, hell yeah, there are some folks who are definitely gonna be brought down. The folks to whom he ominously refers are not, as you might suspect, Trump and his gangster-like associates, with their baskets full of subpoenas, convictions, and investigations. Instead, they are the very people who are staging a coup by trying to remove Trump from office. Those unscrupulous Democrats, daring to question the president's good intentions and impeccable scruples. The "deep state", fictitious though it is to anyone with an eye to reality. Foreign operatives, wanting to install one world government and currency, an "illuminatti", always shady, nameless, lurking in smoke filled rooms somewhere in the Swiss alps, or over the rainbow. Trump supporters never seem to have the names. Trump supporters seem to be disproportionately numerous among the extreme zealous evangelical Christians, awaiting, as always, the rapture. Also, Angry blue collar folk who never went to college, and last but not least, the paranormal investigators. There are surprising millions of these, eager to explain the exact manner in which exactly identified extraterrestrials are working, in league with the deep state, the liberal media, and the Democrats, to stage the fictitious anti Trumpian coup. All these groups have, ostensibly, little in common, other than a predilection for sheer fantasy, and a tendency towards zealotry. In common they have a tendency towards unmitigated, unbridled insanity.

Fabricating On the Far Right

AMONG THE MANY FABRICATIONS of the far right is something they call the "socialist-climate cult", the word "cult" evidently only to evoke negative connotations. By inference, those who acknowledge the fact of climate, meaning human made climate change, automatically espouse socialism, un- proven assertion. High praise and academic accolades the intrepid scholar-teacher who embarks on a danger laden mission of explain to the conservative minions, in churches, klan gatherings, Republican committee meetings, that no, it is not necessary to join a cult or be a socialist to accept reality. Climate change and socialism are decidedly different, and merit separate categories. socialism is an economic system based on cooperation and prevalent in the United States, although few Americans seem to understand this, and more so in more civilized countries. Climate change is what happens when industrial "civilization" annually pumps thirty billion tons of carbon into the atmosphere, and leaves it there, absorbing heat. To understand basic science is to understand and accept the harsh reality of climate change, human style.The number of people who embrace socialism and acknowledge global warming, aka climate change, is enormous, numbering hundreds of millions if not billions. That's too many people to constitute a cult, which by definition are quite exclusive. The Christian faith, for instance, was once a cult, then went viral. Social-climateers are better described as "mainstream promulgators of reality and greater economic equality". People who deny what exists invariably fabricate and believe what does not. These people are dangerous, because, as Voltaire said: "People who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities". True, notwithstanding that the intelligent educated can be forced to do neither. But, alas, the conservative community is not the home of the intelligent educated, who tend to congregate on college campuses all across the fruited plain, tend towards progressive politics, and to acccept climate change, even while doing little to urge society to do something about it. People who deny climate change, evolution by natural selection,, and the desirability of economic planning resulting in everyone having enough to eat, also tend to worship an imaginary anthropomorphic entity in the sky who writes books and behaves badly, and they tend to worship the strife, volatility, and extremes of wealth distribution of constant ubiquitous economic warfare, mano vs mano, both individual and collective, called capitalism". Go figure.

Dying Dogs

THE FOUNDER AND LEADER OF ISIS died like a dog, whimpering and screaming like a coward, not like a brave man, the president assures us. Granted, President Trump is the expert on cowardice. As for dogs, if the president were more trustworthy and loyal to worthy causes, he would be their equal. To hide one's taxes from legitimate public scrutiny is not the behavior of a courageous person, nor of an honorable one. Public scrutiny of taxes is a legitimate public concern when you are [resident of the United States and you are involved in a vast array of questionable financial investments which may well pose a conflict of interest, and a violation of the emoluments clause, which, inconvenient to Trump, he calls "the phony emoluments clause" the president does not believe in the constitution, does not believe in obeying whatever part of it presents a threat to his financial or political power, and has said so. the president is a self proclaimed sexual predator, again, by his own proud proclamation. The president is currently refusing to accept the rule of law, by refusing to comply with countless legitimate subpoenas. the president, in a word, is terrified of the prospect of being forced to confront transparent justice within the legal system. That, inarguably, is cowardice. The leader of ISIS, Mr. Baghdadi, fanatically embraced a religion which most Americans, being Christians find repugnant. So fanatic was he that he attempted to carve out of the middle east an Islamic theocracy, with absolute Islamic legal hegemony. it failed, but he died fighting for what he believed in, preferring to die at his own hand to surrendering to his despised enemies. Comparable was the establishment of the nation of Israel, carved out of land owned by others, successful only because it enjoyed the support of several superpowers who forced its creation. The American evangelical community, which staunchly supports Trump and condemns Islam and ISIS, has long made it clear that it seeks to inject as much of the Christian religion into the American government as possible, in essence to turn the United States into a "Christian nation", which most of them falsely claim it was intended by its founders to be. The conservative evangelical community essentially seeks to turn the United States into a Christian theocracy. All religions seek to expand their membership. The Christian religion has sought world domination more aggressively than any other religion. so aggressively, that millions of indigenous people have been slaughtered for their resistance to Christian indoctrination. The FBI formally considers white supremacy, a movement within the evangelical community, to be a greater threat than ISIS. Thus Baghdadi, a murderous terrorist, died trying to do what Christian zealots themselves want to do, with varying degrees of success. Baghdadi was hunted down and killed by people whose national interests they considered antithetical to his. It could reasonably be argued that he showed more courage than the president who ordered his death. Leaders are easy to replace; the ISIS leader's death accomplishes little, despite Trump's mocking manner of describing his death, and vainly, falsely taking credit for it. In dying for what he truly believed in, he showed far greater courage than the president who refused military service under false pretenses, and who hasn't the courage to confront those whose investigations of his questionable behavior are perfectly legitimate. When Trump dies, he may or may not die "like a dog", but he will have lived his life far less honorably and bravely than the most common cur.

Getting Healthy Again

I HEARD IT CORRECTLY. The radio health advice program said that one in three American children under the age of eleven have type 2 diabetes. At first he said one in eleven, then changed it, correcting himself. One in eleven sounds more likely, since, evidently one in ten Americans have diabetes of one type or another. In Mexico, its two in ten, so, America can take consolation that we are not dead last. In so many other ways we are. Decency and integrity of current national leadership comes to mind, but, I digress. I've been a motion machine since I was quite young, in the sixties, when kids bolted out of the house in early morning, and returned at dusk during long hot summer days, dusty, hungry, but undeterred. In those days our parents were unafraid to turn us loose, unhelmeted, unadorned with electonic gadgetry, and unsupervised. The mothers of the greatest generation knew the odds against misfortune were slim, although, ironically, actually much greater than in today's overly paranoid helicopter parent world. They also knew that we knew where to go when we got hungry, and they summoned us vociferously and relentlessly only when it began to seem that we would risk starvation to complete that one last three on three whiffle ball game. Indeed, the crime rate was far lower sixty years ago then now, even though we were less concerned about it then, and paranoid about it now, due to incessant exposure to catastrophe TV. I like to think that had I had the choice, I would have left my smart phone at home. Now I have a choice, and I don't have one. I'll be damned if I'm gonna be outsmarted by a rectangular piece of plastic and metal. In those days the diabetic rate was much lower, diminishingly small. Somewhere along the line, we became addicted to sugar. My one to two hours of exercise daily were not sufficient to prevent a bout of gout, which, according to my primary care physician, was attributable almost exclusively to my admitted addiction to Gatorade. I didn't think it mattered, I worked out so much. Wrong, A took only a brief hiatus from my fitness regimen to allow the sugar to build up, in my right big toe, a precursor, I am told, to arthritis and diabetes both. Just cut out the sugar. I found sugar free Gatorade, and I'm back on the field. remarkable, the thought that American society need only patronize sugar free substitutes, and the diabetic rate could return to pre nineteen sixty levels. Much the same is true of most world problems; do the right thing, which is the simple thing. A trillion trees, a little more family planning, resource management, and economic sanity, which means planning, and we would all be back on the field, romping freely, happily, all damned day long, on our beloved sandlots of the mind, gleefully ignoring our hunger just a bit longer.

Doing Good. For Ourselves

HAD ANYONE ELSE done what I did, I would call the person a hero, which, admittedly, is a term we tend to throw about a bit brazenly and superciliously these days. f nothing else, I would call that person a good citizen, a kind hearted soul, or a damned good cat lover. The United States, like most countries, is run amok with stray, homeless cats, as many as forty million, or half the nation's cat population. In many countries, particularly Islamic countries, cats are regarded as sacred creatures, and are treated accordingly, stray or not. In an Islamic country, if you do harm to a cat, you are in serious trouble, maybe even put to death. But not in America, where they are largely ignored, except when public service announcements beg us to do better, and kind hearted souls chip in with food and adoptive measures. When I built my house, I was so taken with its beauty that I had no thought of acquiring a pet. The furniture was new, the carpet was new, and my pride reigned supreme. Then, a cute female appeared in my yard, daily, and all bets were off. Her daily persistence lured me into befriending the feral beauty, we slowly became friends, and into my abode she came, and remains to this day. Then another, and another, almost as if they regarded me as a potential replacement mother, if a very ugly cat. That arrangement persisted for several years, me an my three indoor babies, until two beautiful white females showed up, looking underweight. the rest, you can surmise. Having gained my love and their trust, they belatedly they brought their litters to me, precious little ovals clinging to their bellies. I fed the mothers and the mothers fed the kittens, and the kittens grow and flourished in the safety of my house. Here they remain, two indoor and seven outdoor angels, the outdoor angles living in my garage, replete with food, water, baby beds, and electric blankets, cat trees, a small cat house, heated, the works. I can't do enough for them, and the more I do, the greater my joy. having nine cats spayed, neutered, and vaccinated is expensive. Once upon a time I had a retirement savings. No matter. As Neil Diamond crooned: "money talks, but it don't sing and dance, and it don't walk." I c an only implore all kind hearted citizens to do something to help homeless cats and dogs. Cats in particular can thrive rather well in the wilds of suburbia and in rural and urban areas. They ar made to hint and fend for themselves. Dos, not so much. Millions of us can attest that to adopt a shelter animal or a homeless cat is among the most rewarding behaviors one can ever experience. Ultimately, we do it for ourselves, not for them.

Losing Faith

RELIGION IS DYING. It is dying rapidly in North America and Europe, and although there are still over four thousands religions in the world, and notwithstanding the fact that Christian missionaries have for decades expanded their faith throughout Latin American and Africa, religion is dying. the numbers prove it. In the last decade the percentage of American and Europeans who self identify as "Christian" has plummeted by a whopping ten percent, down to sixty five percent in the United States and even less in Europe, which has become essentially a secular civilization. The trend is being spearheaded by the millennial generation, which according to surveys only one half of which embraces religion. The reason is obvious: we live increasingly in a age of science. That science, rather than religion, is the basis of understanding the universe is manifestly obvious in in era in which telescopes penetrate to the edge of the universe, and chemistry, physics, and the biological sciences reveal the organic world down to the level of the subatomic particle. Confronted with the facts of science, the fables and myths or traditional religion seem not only blatantly false, but ridiculous, impossible to believe with any degree of seriousness. And, like a wounded and dying predator, religion is lashing out in anger. Right wing religious zealots concoct a never ending spew of conspiracy theories intended to place the blame for the demise on religion everywhere but where it properly belongs, blaming liberals, the media, Hollywood elites, the usual suspects, rather than the real culprit; education. people are smarter and better educated than ever. This seems hard to believe listening to Americans as they butcher the language, and display stunning ignorance on such matters as the identity of the vice president, basic math and science, and current events. Intellectually lazy as most Americans are, even the lazy uninformed are les uninformed than in previous generations. Most devout Christians still refuse to accept the scientific reality of evolution and a fourteen billion year old universe, preferring to languish in their creationism and other false notions. but even that is slowly changing, as the forces of education relentlessly, inexorably encroach upon society. Religion, which for thousand of years has kept the human mind mired in darkness even as it offers comfort and inspiration to those who have no interest in asking questions, is being pushed out of circulation by a better paradigm: reality.

Coming Around

THE TYPICAL STRATEGY for Trump, as is well known, is to deny any allegations of wrongdoing, and then to viciously attack their source. Then, when the wrongdoing becomes so evident as to defy any hope of denial, the Trump strategy is to acknowledge the wrongdoing, and to assert, falsely, that it was not actually wrongdoing, while once again gratuitously attacking anyone and everyone who even suggested any wrongdoing on his part. The Ukraine comes to mind, weapons for damaging information on political rivals, as clearly explained by Mr. Mulvaney, before his subsequent denial. Trump has often been compared to a mafia don; this is an inaccurate comparison; mafia dons live by a code of conduct, and must demonstrate sufficient honor and integrity to inspire loyalty. Finally, belatedly, Republicans are beginning to see the need for impeachment and removal. Slightly more than one half of the American electorate now favors it. The percentage will increase, as Trump's criminal and unethical behavior becomes more widely known, as the denials turn into vacuous assertions of rectitude, and, finally, confessions. Trump is only likely to confess on his deathbed, if then. His supporters are another matter. Though slowly dwindling in number, the core hardens. People are inclined by nature to defend their mistakes rather than to admit them. Trump supporters are inclined to behave like Trump, to hurl lies and vicious insults at their detractors, to defend the indefensible, and to invent alternative realities to justify their embrace of criminal behavior. I live in a red state, one in which science is rejected by the majority and superstition is embraced. My congressional representative, a Republican, tells me that he read the transcript of the phone conversation between Trump and the president of the Ukraine, and sees nothing impeachable. People only see what they wish to see, as everyone knows. My congressman said that he sees no high crimes nor misdemeanors committed by Trump. He clearly saw bill Clinton lie about sex to a grand jury, and voted for impeachment. Donald Trump has told more than thirteen thousand lies to the American people, over three hundred million of us, and ignores them all. Surely it is a worse crime to tell thousands of lies to the American people than to tell a single lie to a grand jury. But don't expect my congressman, nor any other Trump supporter, to accept this. They accept only what supports their twisted support of our criminal president, and everything else, everything true, they ignore. They fabricate a false reality, and the facts they call "fake news". They, the Trump supporters, are the truly guilty. But, gradually, belatedly, their lies are crumbling, and their pathological behavior is finally, at long last, bringing about their destruction, and the destruction of the criminal they so misguidedly support.

Contending Against Stupidity

ACCORDING TO RECENT SURVEYS, eighty seven percent of the American people are unaware that there exists a comprehensive consensus among scientists that climate change is real, and is caused almost entirely by human behavior, and that there is still time to mitigate its effects and perhaps to even eliminate it completely, but only if extreme action is taken now, such as planting at least a trillion trees, switching entirely to sustainable sources of energy, and by curtailing our rather nasty habit of constantly pumping carbon into the atmosphere and leaving it there, to the tune of thirty billion tons per year, for a grand total of roughly eight hundred and fifty billion, so far, and counting. Again, only thirteen percent of the American people are aware of all this. I know many of these people; among them are some of my friends and my sister, who says: "you hear so many different things about global warming that you just don't know what to believe". Well, you do, actually, dear sis, if you pay attention, real attention. There is more proof of human made climate change than there is of the holocaust, and, as they say; that's goin' some. The number, of course, should be one hundred percent awareness of climate change consensus rather than the mere thirteen, and would be, in a properly educated America. That we are not. Switching gears, recent surveys indicate that twenty percent of the American people believe that freeing the slaves was a bad idea. Here we are talking about Trump supporters, right wing Christian evangelical types. That seems unbelievable at first, but not after giving it some thought, and taking into account the educational level of the American people. I believe both stats, because I live in a very small town in the American south, and most if not all of the misinformed majority live in my neighborhood, or so it sometimes seems. It can be reasonably argued that the slaves were never freed, but were merely gradually transitioned into variously evolved versions of the institution, including segregation, discrimination, lynching, joblessness, and all the rest, good ole fashioned racism of the sort we know and seem to love today, though we deny loving racism and proclaim piously our hatred of it. We embrace it even as we despise it. Go figure, as they say. All of this we Americans know so very well, at least those among us who pay attention, which constitutes a vast minority. But, there is good news. I keep telling people that seventy three percent of the American people are Christians, or claim to be; but, I seem to be mistaken, behind in my facts, a purveyor, if you will, of "fake news" to use that rapidly becoming cliched term. The actual number, according to recent surveys, is more like sixty five percent. Still way too high for 2019, but rapidly declining, and, well, good frigging riddance.The Christian faith is fading away, into the dustbin of history, to use yet another cliche. We the American people may be dumber than doorknobs, or whatever, but we are getting smarter, maybe, and, well, at least we can hang our hats on that, if precious little else.

Holding Out Hope

I WAS SHOCKED BY THE death of Elijah Cummings, because I had assumed he was in good health, and unaware of his long standing health difficulties. These days sixty eight is a young age at which to die. I was even more surprised at President Trump's bland but dignified comments, something to the effect that Cummings was a man of compassion and wisdom. Wisdom indeed, wisdom enough to seek a thorough investigation of Trump's tragically corrupt administration. Based on his usual behavior, Trump could have been expected to tweet something like "totally dishonest third rate politician finally dead." It would have been much more in keeping with his character, or lack thereof. You might suspect that somebody hid Trump's smart phone from him just long enough to persuade the president that verbally attacking a recently deceased and greatly admired man would be highly detrimental to presidential approval ratings, particularly in the wake of the disastrous decision to feed the Kurds to the Turks. There is now a ray of hope that one, Trump is actually capable of taking good advice and using it, and two, he is capable of speaking without insulting or lying. Trump's failure to consult military advisers prior to removing American forces from, on the other, hand, confirms that, really, the president hasn't changed at all, has not become a person intelligent enough to seek and get advice from people more knowledgeable than himself. His pattern of creating a crises, responding to it, then claiming credit for solving a problem which he created and never should have existed continues apace. Neither does the president seem to have changed his pattern of denying wrongdoing, then, when trapped into admitting it, claiming that the wrongdoing was not wrongdoing, but instead was perfectly legitimate, conducted with unmatched wisdom by a very stable genius. Thus, withholding military assistance from a foreign country until said country provides damaging information on a political opponent becomes a holy crusade to root out corruption, assuming that all corruption within aforementioned foreign country consists of the business dealings of a family member of his primary political opponent. It is indeed surprising that Trump didn't eulogize Elijah Cummings by calling him a corrupt and dishonest third rate politician representing a rat infested city, as he once in fact said of Cummings' Congressional district, then later clarifying his remarks by claiming that he in fact intended his remarks as a compliment. When Trump insulted the people of Baltimore, Cummings graciously invited the president to come for a visit; regrettably, Trump did not accept the invitation. had he done so, he might have learned a little about what it means to be a person of high moral character, and what a nice city Baltimore really is. but then again, probably not; the president is not known for being a good learner.

Bagging Ice

IT WAS nominally, at least on paper, the idea of the century, if not the millennium. I regret that it was not mine, but rather that of two of my coworkers, the two ladies who do the cooking at our local senior center. We have, you see, an ice making machine, a machine the size of a refrigerator, from which small cubes of ice come cascading down from on high when one scoops out ice from below, triggering the new supply. And we use it every day, but only for filling the ice chest for placement next to the iced tea container in the dining room. Daily the vault remains filled with the valuable stuff, and daily the capacity for production goes unexploited. The senior center is constantly engaged in fund raising, bake sales, diner dances and the like, so, why not? Noting that the local grocery stores all sold bags of ice for about two and a half dollars per, why not? We could bag our own ice, sell it for, oh, say, a dollar per, drive all competition out of business, and reap a lucrative profit for our ever cash hungry senior center. Nothing could be more obvious. All summer long the idea languished on the director's desk, victimized by administrative entropy, while down at the food mart the expensive bags flowed out of their machine, into the ice chests of beach goers..and our grand idea languished. Finally came fall, and fall fest. Out of patience, I went over the local director's head, up to the top of the administrative hierarchy, and presented the idea. It passed. All fall fest long orders came rolling in. We had signs posted all over town, and we could not keep up the supply with the demand, to the point where we had to take down the signs and just go on word of mouth. A hundred dollars flowed in in a flurry. Our freezer, regrettably, had room for only about twenty five bags. We kept bagging. Fall fest ended, and we looked forward to a year 'round business, money rolling in, one dollar at a time. Then came the crushing news. The regional director had misunderstood. she had assumed the business was to be temporary, not to extend beyond the fest. No further explanation given. something about sales taxes, a ridiculous notion, since all other fund raising sales we conducted tax exempt. We three kitchen workers sliced open the plastic bags, and back into the ice making machine went the ice, and with it, our hopes and dreams. I'm a retired teacher, a volunteer at the senior center. rarely if ever have I met an administrator of any sort whom I respected. Nary a principle, assistant principle, nor Department head, nor college dean. Assholes and reprobates, all. Paper pushers perpetually covering ass, protecting bloated salaries. I have taught at colleges, junior colleges, universities, high schools, middle schools...and now this. Nary a brain in the bunch. It brings to mind the time a high school principle summoned me to his office, and asked why on earth I was teaching my history classes that Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian, as if his deism were my fault. I keep thinking of the money our little senior center could have made by now. And the number of Americans who unnecessarily go about their business believing that Thomas Jefferson was a devout evangelical Christian. They're the same dilettante philistine rabble who spend a dollar and a half too much for a bag of ice, and, tragically, always will, notwithstanding the unrewarded brilliance of our kitchen crew. Administration is where good ideas go to die.

Retrogressing

THE GENTLEMAN is eighty five, but seemingly of reasonably sound mind. He was born a century and a half too late. He detests Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt and presumably venerates Jefferson Davis. I was afraid to ask. Davis spent time in prison, which is where the eighty five year southern gentleman properly belongs. Quite naturally, he is a Donald Trump supporter, as the ignorant, amoral, and poorly educated invariably are. In the event that the president is impeached, an increasing likelihood, he stridently asserts his defiant intention of voting for him for reelection. Mr. Trump, you see, has restored constitutional law to the United States, and by implication has made it great again. This, notwithstanding that not a day in the Trump presidency has passed without some egregious violation of the cherished document by this administration. When I reminded the antebellum gentleman that a mere month prior to his election Trump proclaimed himself a serial sexual predator, he replied that he didn't give a fig; thirty years ago he behaved the same way. It made me wonder what's stopping him now, other than the impotency of age. Predictably, in his twisted thinking, African-Americans are still niggras, or worse, and his chief complaint about them is that they always seem to get the pay raises first. He did not divulge the source of his information. Racism and the depraved imaginings it fosters are not tangible. Socialism, of course, is a scourge, and must never be allowed to set foot in America. When I suggested that he refuse his social security check, he indicated that the program never should have been instigated, and that the money would have yielded far greater returns had it been invested privately. He omitted any mention of recessions and stock market crashes. People with spurious arguments use facts with great selectivity. Donald Trump was quite correct when he contended that he could shoot someone dead on fifth avenue and suffer no loss of support. Aside from the fact that the victim would hardly be noticed by scurrying passersby, just as Trump supporters hardly seem to notice nor care that their icon solicits foreign assistance for personal gain, prevaricates incessantly, abandons and disdains American allies, sucks up to dictators, the more brutal the better, and has made the United States into the object of global ridicule and contempt, except among fellow right wing extremists. I considered asking why a southern gentleman of modest means would support a new York City billionaire, or alleged billionaire, since without tax returns we can't be sure, but why bother? Neither he nor his fellow reprobates give a hoot.

Feigning Outrage

IN RETROSPECT, Trump's reaction to his impending impeachment was predictable, and, predictably, his hardening core of devout followers will follow suit. On the innocuous, tame end of the spectrum, are the ones asserting simply that presidential solicitation of foreign campaign assistance is not an impeachable offense, offense though it may or may not be. Among this particular group of apologists are some who will insist that the president was not only committing no offense, but that he was serving God and humanity by seeking out and fighting corruption, on an international scale, on the phone with the president of Ukraine. The fact, however, that the president of the United States asked for help getting reelected from a foreign country is indisputable. This means that unless Trump is impeached, or a law is passed prohibiting it, every future American president will have the opportunity to seek personal political assistance from any other country in the world. Can you even remotely imagine how conservative republican christian types would have reacted if, during the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton had been caught asking a forcing leader for dirt on Donald Trump? Or if, for that matter, president Obama had been whistle blown for asking for dirt on republican leaders and politicians on the phone with some foreign head of state? What you can imagine, accurately, is that the Obama-Clinton haters would have been positively apoplectic, and beyond. We would have subjected to a never ending outpouring of righteous patriotic anti-corruption family values Christian pro transparent government honesty. As usual, more deeply disappointing than this president's behavior is the continued support of his supporters. We have known since teh Access Hollywood affair that donald Trump is a sexual predator, and proud of it, and hsi financial and other forms of personal corruption are well known. someone who once supported and for for Trump, but has since realized their mistake, is to be admired for "coming clean." The only remaining question is; how long wil it take for the rest of them to do likeeise, to correct their error of supporting a criminal president.

Finding Our Cultural Roots

"WHITE NATIONALISM" and "White Supremacy" are two terms which, owing to regrettable social trends, are being thrown around often and loosely these days. There is also, perhaps confusingly, something called "Christian nationalism" - whole books have been written about it - and lest we leave it to others to elucidate, let us acknowledge an even broader category: "white Christian nationalism". If one wanted to wax especially, verbosely descriptive, one might add the term "conservative Republican" to the mix, and still be describing a rather large segment of American society. For it is from within the generally conservative community that all the above derive. When you see the gangs of swastika swaggering skin heads on TV, you might wonder whether they can possibly call themselves "Christians", but rest assured many if not most of them if not nearly all of them do, whether or not they can. Warriors for Christ, KKK style, ready to fight and die for race, God and country. You just don't see very many right wing extremist para military atheist or Zen groups in America. The way it works now, when we talk about extreme right wing folks, we are talking about them politically and religiously. Extreme conservatism in those areas are "joined at the hip" in America, among those who venerate tradition, and fear and resist change. Many seem to assume that evangelical Christianity and right wing political beliefs go together inherently, naturally, which of course is sheer nonsense. In point of fact, modern political and economic conservatism is directly opposed to the teaching of the Christian faith, or at least that part of it attrituble to Jesus. It is from within this community that support for Trump almost exclusively emerges. The fiercely patriotic, fiercely religious ilk, who feel fervently that America was once great, no longer is, but can and must be made great again, and, in point of fact, already has been, simply because Trump has been in office for over two years, and now the task is to "keep" America great. Christers for country, race, and Trump. Bear in mind that on a pleasant evening in 1843, about half of the American population, having sold everything, stood atop hills all across the fruited plain, Millerites, awaiting the rapture. it never happened, they tried it again a year later, and again, nothing. Same old mysterious God. Nor that in 1938, Orson Welles had us all convinced that Martians had invaded. That is the cultural context within which we operate, for lack of any alternative. One can begin to understand American politics and culture a bit by bearing in mind that in the United States of Amazement, the same people who still support Trump tend to believe, for the most part, that the world needs to end soon, because its supposed to, and that the MAGA movement is the perfect vehicle with which to usher in our prophesied thus necessary end.